Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the bill and to condemn the Labor Party for leaving a debt and deficit disaster requiring the necessary budget repair that we are now implementing. The measures in this bill form a part of a budget that is absolutely necessary to secure Australia's economic future. We need to put health funding on a sustainable footing. The budget outlines a clear plan—in fact, the only plan—that will address Labor's debt and deficit disaster. When the coalition last left office Australia had a $20 billion surplus and $50 billion in the bank. But over six years Labor squandered this and ran up five record deficits, with a further $123 billion in projected deficits and gross debt headed towards $667 billion.

The antics of the Labor Party remind me of a quote heard now and again which is attributed to all manner of important people. It has been said that 'the American republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money'. I have seen this statement variously attributed to Benjamin Franklin, to US President John Adams and even to the famous French political commentator Alexis de Tocqueville. It turns out that the original statement was made by none of these notables but, rather, by a more obscure person named Alexander Fraser Tytler. Tytler is believed to have written that democracy 'can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing'.

I do not subscribe to such sentiments and I think the last election result proves that I am correct. The Australian public are much smarter than that. However, the Leader of the Opposition and his crew seem to work on the political theory that they just have to promise more spending and they will get away with it. What a remarkably craven bunch they are! As I have said, we are stopping the rot and putting health expenditure back on a sustainable footing—but, of course, no surprise, Labor is opposing this bill. In his budget in reply speech the Leader of the Opposition talked about meeting with a Queanbeyan family. Queanbeyan is a town in my electorate. The Leader of the Opposition scored an own-goal when referring to that family. He noted that 'like many Australians they aren't wealthy, they work hard to make ends meet'. But he went on to say 'they balance their budget'. Well, if it is good enough for that Queanbeyan family to balance their budget, maybe the Labor Party should listen to them.

As the Minister for Health said, this bill will streamline the delivery of health workforce policy programs by removing an unnecessary level of administration and bureaucracy. Over the last six years, the health bureaucracy continued to increase in size, with 21 stand-alone agencies operating outside the portfolio department. A bureaucracy of this size is unsustainable. Again, as the minister says, the coalition government is determined to get every possible dollar away from administration and bureaucratic processes and back into frontline services. This bill is part of that process. The government is committed to reducing red tape and duplication, delivering a smaller and more rational government footprint.

Health Workforce Australia was established by the Rudd government under the now expired four-year National Partnership Agreement on Hospital and Health Workforce Reform, agreed by the Council of Australian Governments in November 2008. HWA became operational on 1 January 2010. Under the national partnership agreement HWA was to act as a national body working to health ministers to streamline clinical training arrangements and support workforce reform initiatives. All jurisdictions were to provide funding to HWA. However, the states and territories have not contributed any funding as agreed. That was to be $540 million over four years. The Commonwealth government has been the sole funder of HWA, committing $1.05 billion since its establishment.

Following the passage of this bill, programs and functions of HWA will be transferred to the Department of Health. I say again that the government is not withdrawing support for the health workforce; it is delivering on its commitment to reduce red tape and streamline programs. Savings will support front-line health services and programs. Indeed, the budget does not cut funding for health at all. Annual federal assistance to the states for public hospitals will increase by more than nine per cent every year for the next three years and by more than six per cent in the fourth year. That is a 40 per cent increase over the next four years. We are increasing funding for states to run public hospitals by more than $5 million from $13.8 billion in 2013-14 to $18.9 billion in 2017-18. The overall annual health spending will increase by more than $10 billion or 16 per cent from $64.5 billion in 2013-14 to $74.8 billion in 2017-18. The government is also putting the growth in health spending on a more sustainable trajectory from 2017-18, but every year it will continue to grow.

Let me also say a few words about GP co-payments. From 1 July 2015 previously bulk-billed patients will contribute $7 towards the cost of standard GP consultations. Ten years ago, we were spending $8 billion a year on Medicare; today we are spending $20 billion. So we are asking everyone to make a modest contribution to ensure that Medicare is sustainable in the long term. A strong safety net will be put in place. Concession cardholders and children under 16 will only pay the contribution for the first 10 visits each year. The government will not be wasting this money. Every dollar of savings in health expenditure in the budget will be reinvested back into the Medical Research Future Fund. There is a very important point to make here: the government is not introducing a co-payment as much as reintroducing it. Prime Minister Bob Hawke actually introduced it in the 1991 budget. He and his health minister, Brian Howe, fully supported it. Someone else who has supported it is the member for Fraser, who also happens to be the shadow Assistant Treasurer. He is supposedly the brains trust for the Labor Party economic team. When he was studying for his PhD, which he got—

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